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EARLY DAYS IN PLATTEVILLE 



BY 



D. J. GARDNER 

TRUMAN 0. DOUGLASS 

MARIA GREENE DOUGLASS 




Reijrinted from the Wisconsin Magazine of History 
Volume VI, Number 1, September, 1922 






I 



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T 



PLJiTTViLhE. ^ 

HE tub»criber ha» U»d oni % new ^^J** V 
FlalltiUe, io Iowa Couolj, Micbig to Twri- 

/laUvilU l« baodtomely lituat^d oo lb« bordtr 
of tbe Prairio.ia » groie lb»l oono^oU wUb Ibe 
exteottfe Fowt oo lb« PUtle Rittrt; tod u ;J4 
milei North of Otleo*, 18 miU* Homtbwett of Mm- 
erml Poioi. lod 12 mil©* Rswt of tbo MiwiMippl; on 
the ratio 8ug« rood from Gtleoa to Prairie Do 

CbioD. . . * . * 

Tbo torroaodwj country i« loferier io oo««, to 
fertility of ioil, and adaptodoett to ogrioullur©. 
Tbo timber oo tbo Piatto riftrt, ta of excailaat 
I quality, aod abundant; aod rory eoofooitot to ibo 
farrain^ laod on tbe Prairie; tbe little Platte, wbiob 
runs witbin a mile and a balf of tbe Town, it a raU 
uable Mill ttream, affording fine falU io tariodt 
places for roiU sites, and a sufficient tolnme of wa- 
ter at all seasoos of tbe year, to carry extensile 
Macbinery; a Saw mill Is already in operation oo 
tbit stream, Smiles beloir Piattf ille, aod anotber a 
few loiles above Springs and streams of porest wa- 
ter abound io erery part of thecootignousCouotrf. 
. Io addition to those adrantagea. it may bo safely af- 
firmed tbat the mineral wealth of this region it •- 
qual to tbat of any other portion of tbo Mioing Dis- 
trict; attracted by such inducemoott, an industri- 
ous, intelligent and moral population is settling and 
improTing the country repidly, and purchasing tbe 
lands at they come into market. 

Persons wishing to purchase property, end totHe 
io tho Territory i would do well to explore thie too- 

tioo of C.«o.r/. "•'•'• P,"«j1-5°«boUNTREE. 

8«pC. 19. 1835. _ ^ 43— 4t ^^ 

From Sorth iVcslern Gazette and Galena Advertiser, September 19, 1835 



EARLY DAYS IN PLATTEVILLE 

Tlie three articles which follow, from Hon. D. J. Gardner, 
Rev. Truman O. Douglass, and his wife, Maria Greene Douglass, 
all relate to the early history of Platteville and practically to the 
years prior to the close of the Civil War. The editor is very glad 
to present these contributions to the readers of the magazine. 
They are all well written, by responsible first-hand witnesses who, 
though venerable in years, are gifted with excellent memories 
and trained to careful, discriminating statement in historical 
matters. It will be noted that, whereas the two Douglass papers 
deal mainly with reminiscences of those pioneers whose interests 
centered in the school, the Academy, and the Presbyterian or 
Congregational Church, the reminiscences of Mr. Gardner deal 
with incidents more characteristic of the mining frontier. In a 
way, therefore, Mr. Gardner brings to us the atmosphere of the 
earliest Platteville, the Douglasses that of a somewhat mature 
community. 

Platteville became a lead mining center with the discovery of 
rich deposits in 1827, the year that miners began fully to prospect 
the Wisconsin mining area. In the fall of that year John H. 
Rountree became part owner, by purchase, of one of the principal 
diggings opened in the spring. He and his partner, J. B. Camp- 
bell, are said to have taken out within a year mineral to the 
value of $30,000.' They erected a log furnace, opened a tavern 
and store, and otherwise prepared to take advantage of the trade 
which the mineral wealth attracted to the vicinity. Communica- 
tion was maintained with Galena, which continued to be the 
metropolis of the lead region, though Mineral Point soon became 
the leading town in the W'isconsin field. In 1829 "Platte River," 
as the place was at first called, was given a post office. 

Soon after the Black Hawk W'ar the Platteville mines began 
to attract wider attention. In 1834 a "rush" of small proportions 
occurred, which may have been due in part to the recent survey 

' Castello N. Holford, History of Grant County (Lancaster, 1900), 4S4. 



4 Early Days in Platteville 

of the lands. 2 The increase in population justified the platting 
of the town, and in September, 1835 Major Rountree placed in a 
Galena paper the advertisement of the site of Platteville which is 
herein reproduced. It will be observed that among the advan- 
tages claimed for the place were a fertile soil, a good supply of 
timber, and a fine water power stream, in addition to the mineral 
wealth. 

The village grew by irregular accretions to its mining popula- 
tion, and little by little, especially after 1846, when miners were 
permitted to enter at the land oflice the lands containing their 
mines, farming in the fertile prairies and adjacent openmgs 
came to furnish a more permanent basis of its prosperity. The 
census of 1850 assigns to the town of Platteville, including the 
village, a population of 2171. Just how many the village con- 
tained at that time cannot be ascertained. In 1855 it had 1427 
when the entire town had 2789. An analysis of the population in 
1850 shows that 1552 were American born, 616 foreign born. 
Of the American born 573 were natives of Wisconsin, 181 of 
Illinois, 164 of Pennsylvania, 142 of New York, and 122 of Ohio. 
Natives of the southern states aggregated 162; of the northern, 
aside from Wisconsin, 817. This reveals how rapid must have 
been the influx of emigrants from the northern states after the 
first flush of the mining boom had passed. Of the foreign element 
England was credited with 349, Germany 145, Ireland 69, 
Canada 28. There were 5 Scots, 4 Welshmen, 9 Norwegians, 4 
Dutch, 2 Swiss, and 1 Frenchman. This is the social environment 
into which the narratives by Mr. and Mrs. Douglass fit. The 
Gardner narrative, except for the incident about General Grant, 
must be referred to a condition which by 1850 was already 
somewhat altered. 

The footnotes appended to the articles by Dr. Douglass and 
Mrs. Douglass were very kindly furnished by Hon. James W. 
Murphy of Platteville, whose knowledge of the antiquities of the 
place is at once extensive and minute. 

From the pen of Mr. Josiah L. Pickard, who figures so 
prominently in the article by Mrs. Douglass, this Society has an 

^ The range of townships which includes the town of Platteville, range one west, was 
surveyed in 1833 by Sylvester Sibley. 



D. J. Gardner 5 

extended manuscript of great value as a source for educational 
history. That manuscript will be published in later issues of the 
magazine. 

INCIDENTS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
WISCONSIN LEAD MINES 

D. J. Gardner 

John H. Rountree, who came here from Mammoth 
Cave, Kentucky, early in 1827, and who remained here 
until his death, was the first permanent settler of Platteville, 
although there were hunters and trappers in this vicinity 
many years prior. Grant County takes its name from one 
of these hardy men. A man named Grant came into the 
county and located on the river bearing his name, in the 
year 1816. He had a kettle which fitted over his head and 
which he frequently wore in that manner. An incident of 
him is related by one of the early settlers. While attending 
his traps on the Grant River, a band of Indians came upon 
him suddenly and one of them rushed up and struck him 
on the head with his tonuihawk, which did no more damage 
than to produce a ring from the kettle. The Indian turned 
back and yelled, "Manitou," and the whole band fled. 

Prior to the advent of the white man the Indians mined 
and smelted lead ore here quite extensively, and when the 
early white settlers came they used the same method 
employed by the Indians, which was known as the "log 
furnace." In the early forties the Yorkshire English brought 
in the blast furnace. Two of these furnaces were in opera- 
tion for many years here, the Coates furnace and the Straw 
furnace, the latter being dismantled about twelve years ago. 
The first white settlers came from southern Illinois, Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and ^Missouri, and a little later there 
came numbers of Europeans. All of the lead was hauled to 
Galena by ox team and shipped from there by boat to St. 



6 Incidents in History of Wisconsin Lead Mines 

Louis and other points down the river. Dubuque is as 
close to Platteville as Galena, but the road to Galena, until 
recent years, has been much better than the road to Du- 
buque. The average lead ore of the early-day mining ran 
from seventy-five to eighty-eight per cent metallic lead. 
Most of the early mining was shallow, and in fact many of 
the largest bodies of lead ore were discovered at the grass 
roots. The Rountree lode was discovered in 1827 in a 
ground-hog den. The Finney patch, one of the most exten- 
sive lodes ever worked here, was discovered in 1828 at the 
grass roots. This mine turned out nearly five million 
pounds of lead ore and was not over thirty feet deep in the 
lowest place. Mining was the principal occupation of this 
region until about the year 1846, when agriculture began to 
have a good start. 

One of the early settlers of Platteville was Jacob Hoosier, 
who came here in 1828 and located on a tract of land about 
a mile south of this city. In the year 1831 he built a house 
on this piece of land, and in 1846 he built a stone house 
and occupied it until the date of his death. His daughter, 
Mrs. Frank Young, now owns the farm. This farm has 
never been out of the family since it was first occupied by 
Mr. Hoosier. JNIr. Hoosier was noted as a crack shot with 
the rifle and a race-horse man. In the fall of 1848 he par- 
ticipated in one of the most unique horse races that was 
ever run in Wisconsin. As related to me by INIr. Hoosier, he 
and Mr. James Vineyard, who was also a race-horse man, 
had had a race in which Mr. Vineyard came off victorious. 
Mr. Hoosier then went down to Edwardsville, Illinois, and 
purchased a sorrel mare which he called Big Ann, and he 
turned her over to his jockey to care for and train. In the 
meantime he fixed up another race with Mr. Vineyard. 
Mr. Vineyard found out from the jockey that JXIr. Hoosier 
had purchased a new horse, and he and some of his friends 
and the jockey stole the horse out one night, tested her 



D. J. Gardner 7 

speed, and found that she was much more fleet than the 
Vineyard horse. They made an arrangement with Mr. 
Hoosier's jockey, by the terms of which he was to hold Big 
Ann in and let the Vineyard horse win the race. 

In some unaccountable manner Mr. Hoosier found out 
what had been done but did not let it be known and kept on 
putting up money on Big Ann until he exhausted his re- 
sources. The morning of the race he put up an additional 
five hundred dollars brought to him by Tim Barr from 
Beetown in this county. He also drove up all of his horses 
and cattle to the place of the race and bet them against 
money. Judge Paine, one of the early-day lawyers of Platte- 
ville, was the stake holder. The race was run in a straight 
mile track about two miles northeast of the city of Platte- 
ville. All of the lovers of horse racing in southwestern 
Wisconsin were on the ground the day of the race, and Mr. 
Vineyard and his friends felt sure of breaking Mr. Hoosier. 

As the hour approached, the jockey, all togged out for 
the race, was walking the mare up and down the track 
when Mr. Hoosier stuck his finger in his mouth and blew 
a shrill whistle and a young man by the name of Gregory, 
dressed for the race, came out of the hazel brush. Mr. 
Hoosier whipped out a brace of pistols, walked up to his 
former jockey, and said, "You d — thief, stand aside," and 
picked up the young man from the hazel brush and put 
him on Big Ann, at the same time saying, "You win this 
race or I will kill you." At this juncture of affairs excite- 
ment was running high and the Vineyard forces were trying 
to withdraw their money, but the unwritten law of the 
mining district would not permit it and Judge Paine held 
fast to the stakes. The race was run and Big Ann came 
in first, winning her owner about ten thousand dollars. 
After the race was over, Mr. Hoosier went up to Big Ann, 
put his arm around her neck, and patted her and said, 
"Ann, horse racing and me is done. You will not have 



8 Incidents in History of Wisconsin Lead Mines 

to work any more or run in any more races." He gathered 
in his boodle and went back to his farm home and never 
tried racing any more. If some of the modern race-horse 
men would follow his example they would be much better 
off. Mr. Hoosier lived about a mile from my father's farm, 
and Big Ann lived until she was about thirty-five years old. 
I remember seeing her in the early seventies. 

Most of the early settlers coming to this vicinity brought 
their rifles with them and many of them brought pistols 
and bowie knives. I very distinctly remember the first 
governor of Wisconsin, Nelson Dewey, who was living at 
Cassville, Wisconsin, in 1878. He had had some trouble 
with a doctor then living in the town. I overheard some 
remarks that the doctor had made and I went into the 
Governor's room in the hotel and told him to be careful, 
that the doctor had a revolver. Whereupon Governor 
Dewey said, "If he pulls a revolver on me, I will cut his 
d — head off," at the same time pulling out of his inside 
vest pocket a bowie knife. 

There were a great many rifle matches held here in the 
early days, the prize usually being a fat three- or four-year- 
old steer. The best shot had the first choice of hind quar- 
ters, the next best shot had the second choice of hind 
quarters, the third best shot had the first choice of fore quar- 
ters, the fourth best shot had the second choice of fore 
quarters, and the next best shot took the hide and tallow. 
Mr. Jacob Hoosier quite often went away from these 
matches with the choice of hind quarters. There were 
many other crack rifle shots in the Wisconsin lead mines, 
and every early settler had from one to three rifles hanging 
up near the fireplace with all ammunition ready for any 
emergency. They were all of them muzzle loaders. Mr. 
Hoosier had one gun that he called "Long Tom." I think 
it weighed about fifteen pounds, and he had another rifle 
which he called "Old Rusty." My father, who came here 



D. J. Gardner 9 

in 1840 from Ottawa, Illinois, was also a crack rifle shot. 
He had two of the famous old-fashioned guns. Col. Joseph 
Dickson, who came here in 1827 and who lived about two 
miles west of my father's residence, and who was noted as an 
Indian fighter, was also a crack rifle shot.' 

From 1850 to 1855 there was an exodus of the early 
settlers from here to the California gold fields. Mr. Jacob 
Hoosier and his eldest son crossed the plains in 1850, and 
men who were in his company have related to me that Mr. 
Hoosier and his son supplied the train with fresh meat all 
along the trip. They had two saddle horses with them 
and killed a large amount of game on the way. 

Many of the early settlers of Platteville were personally 
acquainted with General Grant before he went into the 
Civil War from Galena, and when he was a candidate for 
the presidency in 1868 he visited Platteville and made a 
short speech in the normal school here. A new addition to 
the school was dedicated at that time. General Grant came 
again in 1878 after he had made his tour around the world, 
and had a public reception at the residence of Major Roun- 
tree; while there some gentlemen from Lancaster, Wiscon- 
sin, wished to talk to him over a telephone, which had been 
built by Capt. W. H. Beebe — one of the first telephone lines 
in southern Wisconsin, if not the first. General Grant was 
sent for and came to Captain Beebe's office, and for the 
first time in his life used the telephone. 

Another very interesting character of the early days was 
a man by the name of Colonel Teller. He started mining on 
lands now belonging to Hon. J. W. Murphy just southwest 
of this city, and sunk a shaft without the aid of a partner. 
In doing this he used what was known to early miners here 
as an "Indian ladder." After working for some time the 
Colonel became short of funds and could not obtain credit 
at the stores. His wife pleaded with him in vain to stop the 

' For Colonel Dickson's own narrative, see Wis. Hist. ColU. ,v, 315-317. 



10 Incidents in History of Wisconsin Lead Mines 

mining and go at something else which would give them a 
livelihood, but he insisted that there was a large body of 
lead ore under his shaft. He left home one morning intend- 
ing it to be his last day in the shaft. He did not return in 
the evening, and his wife waited until about midnight and 
then called upon some friends to assist her. A searching 
party was formed and they went toward the prospect. 
When they arrived at the shaft, they heard the Colonel 
shouting at the top of his voice. One of the men went down 
the ladder and tried to get him out, when he saw a sheet of 
lead ore covering the entire bottom of the shaft. The 
Colonel during the day had struck it rich and had got 
beside himself in his excitement. This lode made him a few 
thousand dollars, and a few years afterwards he left here. 

One of our oldest living residents at Platteville is Mr. 
Frank Rowe, who came here in the forties and who crossed 
the plains to California with an ox team in 1852, leaving 
Platteville on the last day of March. There were five ox 
teams in the company. Close to the mouth of Shell Creek, 
Nebraska, the company was attacked by Indians, but 
fortunately at that moment another company bound for 
California came in sight. A corral was quickly made of the 
wagons, and the oxen, horses, and non-combatants were put 
in the center. The battle lasted for a considerable time, and 
finally the Indians withdrew leaving nine of their number 
dead. This company had difficulty with the Indians not 
far from Salt Lake City, but no one was hurt. After some- 
thing over three months' travel the company arrived at 
Placerville, commonly called "Hangtown," California. Mr. 
Rowe states that while in California he called upon the 
family of ]\Ir. James R. Vineyard. Mr. Vineyard had 
preceded Mr. Rowe to California and never returned to 
Platteville. Mr. Rowe was present at the "Hoosier horse 
race." He is now past ninety years of age and in possession 
of good health. 



Tniman 0. Douglass 11 

Dr. William Davidson came to Wisconsin Territory in 
1828 and lived close to my father's home. He also discov- 
ered in 1830 one of the large bodies of lead ore. His princi- 
pal occupation all of his lifetime was mining, although he 
used to pull teeth, bleed, and dispense calomel and other 
early-day medicine, and many an old settler has been the 
victim of his "pullicans" and bleeding methods. He was 
frequently a guest at our table for Christmas and Thanks- 
giving dinners.^ 

Another famous character who lived near my father's 
farm was a Mr. James Clark, who was nick-named "Boots." 
He was killed in his cabin by another miner, named Kerns, 
during the course of a heated political argument. Kerns 
was arrested, tried, and acquitted. It was shown in his 
trial that "Boots" was a bad man generally and always 
carried a bowie knife, and some witnesses were introduced 
who showed wounds which they had received in encounters 
with "Boots" and his famous bowie knife. Mr. Clark had 
no relatives in this part of the country. My father dis- 
covered a body of lead ore and called it "Boots Range" 
because "Boots" had his cabin on this range. 

PLATTEVILLE IN ITS FIRST QUARTER CENTURY 

Truman O. Douglass 

My biography can be written in three sentences: born 
in Illinois; raised in Wisconsin; lived in Iowa. California is 
simply a remnant, and doesn't count. 

On my father's side I belong to the innumerable Douglas 
clan of Scotland, and on mother's side to the prolific Mc- 
Cord family of Protestant Ireland. Both families settled 
in the South. J'ather was born in middle Tennessee in 
1812, and mother in Bond County, Illinois, in 1817. Shortly 

* Dr. William Davidson wTote his reminiscences for the Society. These are pub- 
lished in Wis. Hi3t. Colls., v, 317-320. 



12 Platteville in First Quarter Century 

before her birth, in 1816, a colony of Scotch-Irish Presby- 
terians, grandfather Robert McCord the patriarch of the 
company, moved from Tennessee to escape the influences 
of slavery, although some of them had made merchandise 
of human flesh. They settled at Bethel, near Greenville, 
the county seat. Here father and mother were married 
February 19, 1833, Rev, Albert Hale, a member of the 
Yale band of Illinois and a home missionary pastor, officiat- 
ing. Here, too, I was born May 3, 1842. The same year 
my people moved to Platteville, Wisconsin, and this was 
counted my home for a quarter of a century. 

I never lived in the village of Platteville but grew up in 
the country near by. Great multitudes drifted in with us 
to the lead regions about Galena. Galena in those days was 
a rival of Chicago, and had the prospect of becoming the 
great metropolis of the Middle West. I think we selected 
Platteville as our place of residence because Rev. Alvon 
Dixon, mother's nephew by marriage, was then in charge of 
the Academy recently established. 

The American Home Missionary Magazine, about the 
best history of the Middle West, gives us glimpses of Platte- 
ville as it was when we arrived. In the April number of 
1840 we have the following: 

Platteville is near the Little Platte River, some sixteen or eighteen 
miles from the Mississippi, having a small mill stream on one side and 
an extensive forest of hardwood timber on the other, with prairie all 
around, and rich beds of lead ore under the soil in all the [surrounding 
country. There are therefore at this place all the facilities for a flourish- 
ing town — the most so of any in the western part of Wisconsin. The 
only church organization has been a Methodist Society, strong and 
numerous, until a few months ago when a Presbyterian Church of 
twelve members was formed by Rev. Messrs. Hale and Kent.^ The 
Methodists have a convenient, and even for this country, an elegant 
church, with basement rooms for a school or academy, now consisting 
of about 130 pupils of both sexes and of all ages. The teacher, Mr. A. 
M. Dixon, a graduate of Jacksonville College, is one of the elders of the 
infant Presbyterian Church. I may add that the present population 

' Albert Hale was from Bethel, and Aratus Kent, coming to Galena in 1838, was for 
over forty years pastor there and did missionary work in all the region round about. 



Truman 0. Douglass 13 

on a mile square is perhaps 400 — so that it is not a paper town, many 
of which sort are exhibited at the East, and are likely to exist a long 
time only on paper. The town has the reputation and appearance of 
being healthy, abounding in springs and streams of water in hill and 
dale, the village being mostly on the eminence. 

Here is a picture of Platteville in 1842: 

This place contains 800 inhabitants, and is located about twenty- 
five miles from Galena, and the same distance from Dubuque. There 
are here facilities for a flourishing inland town. The Church was formed 
by Rev. Messrs. Kent and Hale about three years ago. The church is 
exerting itself to erect a building to be occupied both as a place of 
worship and an academy. It is expected that this building will be 
completed the present autumn. Mr. Dixon, who now supplies the 
pulpit, having devoted himself particularly to the interests of education, 
will then take charge of the academy with from 70 to 100 pupils. Of 
course an efficient minister will be needed for the congregation. There 
will be work enough in the vicinity for two or three ministers. 

Mr. Dixon reports for the Church: 

During the past nine months there has been an increase of religious 
feeling. Fifteen have been added to the Church. The congregation 
has been doubled. The Church now numbers 57 members. Almost 
everything that is done in a pecuniary way, goes into the building 
which is nearly finished. 

A belated report was pubHshed in 1844. The Missionary 
says: 

The cause of the delay of this report is the existence of the smallpox 
in an epidemic form in our village; we have been and are being most 
severely and dreadfully scourged with it. It commenced in this village 
Oct. 28th [1843] in very mild form, and continued such for a consider- 
able length of time, so that four weeks elapsed before any of our physi- 
cians discovered its true character so as to venture to call it by its 
true name; and another week passed before they could be persuaded 
of it. No deaths occurred until Dec. 6th, since when it has been very 
fatal. All business is at a standstill; the schools are suspended; and 
places of worship are nearly deserted. The whole village is affected with 
the disease. Fifteen, who a few days since were among us in all buoy- 
ancy of spirits and of life, now lie beneath the turf. What the end will 
be, God only knows. The disease stole in among us in so mild a shape 
that almost the whole community were fully exposed to its contagion 
before they were aware of the danger. When the alarm came it was too 
late to flee or take measures in self defence. The vaccine matter im- 
posed upon us proved to be no protection, and was worse than none. 
May Heaven dispose this people to profit by this severe judgment. 



14 Platteville in First Quarter Century 

We spent the first winter in a double log house a short 
distance from the village. This was our welcome to Platte- 
ville. Often did I hear my father tell of that fearsome 
winter. At times he was utterly homesick and discouraged. 
I grew up with those whose faces were pocked and pitted in 
this dreadful scourge. 

In the spring of 1844 we moved out into the big timber 
six miles to the northwest, and there began the attempt to 
grub out a forty-acre farm, destroying enough of wood to 
serve almost a township. My earliest recollections are of a 
log cabin sixteen feet square, with puncheon floor, in the 
midst of the black stumps of this timber farm. The fire- 
place was built of sticks and mud. The shake roof was 
weighted down with logs and stones. The door had wooden 
hinges and a wooden latch, and the latch string was out 
all the time to neighbors and to strangers. I really pity 
anybody who never lived in a log house and does not know 
what this "latch string out" signifies of frontier hospitality. 
In that one room were six of us, and beds and a table, all 
the cooking outfit, and a spinning wheel and a loom — and 
sometimes we had company. The hired man had to sleep 
in a straw stack. 

My only association with Platteville while we lived in 
the timber was in the church on the Sabbath day. The 
twelve miles in a lumber wagon was something of a journey, 
but our people had been brought up to attend church and 
they continued to do so now. The meeting house of those 
days was a room in the old Academy building, and Rev. 
John Lewis was the home missionary pastor. 

But the timber home was too far from church, and our 
people could not long endure separation from kindred and 
friends. Both father and mother had the clan instinct fully 
developed. Four years of this isolation was sufficient. Dur- 
ing this time a number of the Bethel community, including 
uncle James B. McCord, had settled at Limestone, on 



Truman 0. Douglass 15 

Limestone Creek, among the limestone quarries one and 
one-half miles west of the town.* Thither late in 1847 we 
moved, and this was my home until I went to college in 
1861. 

For the first years of our residence at Limestone my 
associations with Platteville continued to be confined almost 
wholly to church attendance. Almost the whole neighbor- 
hood went to meeting in the village. The hitching-posts 
around the meeting house were all occupied in those days. 
We did not care much for the Platteville society. We were 
sufficient in ourselves and quite self-satisfied. Were we not 
more pious than were the town people? Did we not send 
five young men into the ministry while Platteville sent only 
one.'"' Were we not all abolitionists and prohibitionists? 
And then was not a Lodgeman in the neighborhood; were 
we not equal to the town folks in intelligence? Did we not 
take the Ladies Magazine and the National Era, in which 
Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published? Did not our log 
schoolhouse, with its slab desks and benches, soon develop 
into a large stone structure with modern furnishings? 
Under the tuition of our able teachers did not a number of 
us only by a little "fall below Demosthenes and Cicero?" 
Did we not excel in music, with our tuning fork and violin 
and clarionet and splendid voices? Deacon McCord turned 
up his nose at the tuning fork but I must relate that at 
times he would back up and start again, although usually 
he would strike the key note at the first trial. We had 
sufficient social life among ourselves. We had our social 

• Limestone Hollow is one mile north of the city, on the east side of Little Platte 
River. Lime kilns, stone quarries, brick yards, and turning mills were operated there. 
There was also a sawmill and later a woolen mill on Platte Hiver near the mouth of Lime- 
stone Creek. A stone school building stood on the north side of the valley. It was aban- 
doned in 1877. Many laborers were employed in this valley. They owned and cultivated 
little plots of ground around their homes, which were situated between this valley and the 
city. 

' Mr. Douglass mentions that five young men from the valley entered the ministry. 
That number is now increased to seven by the addition of Kev. Francis Kehoe and Rev. 
James Kehoe. Catholic missionaries, of whom the former is now a missionary in India, to 
which place the latter will soon follow him. 



16 Platteville in First Quarter Century 

gatherings, our spelling schools, our debating societies, our 
charade parties, etc., etc. And we had our own Sunday 
school and neighborhood prayer meetings. We were not 
very refined; we had most of the crudities of a frontier 
settlement. Our men were sometimes rough in speech, and 
our boys followed the example of their elders. Our women 
were very homely in their virtues, and our young ladies 
were some of them rude and some of them were prudes; 
but on the whole we were a fine bunch of people, and we 
needed not to seek our well-being in the society of the 
village. 

When I was old enough to go to town on errands, I came 
in contact with the "seamy side" of Platteville life. "Gro- 
cery Street" was given up to groggeries. I often saw men 
reeling on the streets or lying in the gutters. I met men on 
the road, homeward bound, running their horses at the top 
of their speed and shouting with all the strength of their 
voices. Now and then some poor fellow would fall out and 
break his neck or some of his bones. Well do I remember 
when Pat was pitched into the Platte. I heard his call for 
help; when we fished him out he was almost sober, but not 
quite. 

Sometimes the young hoodlums of the town called me 

"Country Jake." Considering the source I did not care much 

for that. Well do I remember my supreme disgust when two 

distinguished men — great babies! — complained that when 

they first came to this country they were called "Dutch" 

and "Sheeny," and "the iron entered into my soul!" each 

said. I was ashamed of them both for their unmanly 

whining. I think I rather enjoyed the doggerel which the 

town boys sometimes sang to me: 

Abolition Hollow; ten feet wide; 

Nigger in the middle, and a McCord on each side. 

This was a faint echo of the feeling of some of the people 
toward our Puritanical neighborhood. But these whisky 



Truman 0. Douglass 17 

shops and this harmless hoodlum element were not the real 
Platteville. The real Platteville was the churches; the 
Academy; the honorable business and professional men of 
the town; "The Beloved John" [Lewis] of the Congrega- 
tional Church, and his wife Electa Page, and Mr. Pickard 
of the Academy, and the scores of good men and women who 
worked and prayed for the moral and spiritual well-being of 
the community, and for the uplifting of men the world 
around. This was the real Platteville, and its ideals were 
more and more realized as the years went by. 

Of course the Platteville of our days was a mixed multi- 
tude. There were Yankees — not very many of them — and 
a few New Yorkers. The English were a good deal in evi- 
dence, and there were many Germans. We called them all 
Dutch in those days. There were a good many Southerners 
— some of them of "the first families of Virginia," but more 
of them had simply passed through the South on their 
way from Scotland and Ireland; and there were also many 
Catholic Irish. Limestone at length was captured by these 
people, and the schoolhouse and the mill pond and the 
prayer meeting disappeared. 

The nativity of people is to a considerable extent 
manifest in the churches to which they belong. The 
Methodist Church of Platteville was composed of all 
sorts and conditions of men. The Presbyterian, organ- 
ized in 1839, became Congregational in 1849 because 
our people, Scotch-Irish, were outnumbered by the New 
Englanders. The English, of course, must have their 
Primitive Methodist Church; and the Germans divided 
into Presbyterian and Lutheran camps. Late in the day 
some of the English and some of our United States people 
united in forming the Episcopal Church. All these and 
perhaps other churches were in Platteville in my day. 

As a matter of course, as the years went by, I got more 
and more into the social life of the village. Now and then I 



18 Platteville in First Quarter Century 

attended a lecture or a concert in the town, and I attended 
the Academy, though irregularly because father was in ill 
health, and I, the oldest son, was needed at home. But in 
one way and another I became acquainted more and more 
with the young people of the town, homes were open to me 
and I ventured to call at a few places. There was one house 
especially that I passed by more often than was really 
necessary, and a few times I knocked at the door, and, 
only once, sat at the table with the family. So, at last, 
Platteville became dear to me as the home of a good many 
friends — one of them the best friend "in all the world to me." 
Maria Greene, of English ancestors on both sides of the 
house, both families coming to America in the seventeenth 
century, was born at Richmond, Ontario County, New 
York, September 10, 1843. She was the daughter of 
Benoni Greene and Oracy Clark. In 1855, at the^ge of 
twelve, she came with a remnant of the family to Platte- 
ville. She graduated from the Academy, from the Albany 
Normal School, took a course in the Oswego training school, 
and was a teacher for two years in Philadelphia. In 1868, 
at the age of twenty-five, she was a little body weighing 
less than one hundred pounds, with brown hair, brown 
eyes, and brown cheeks. Her dress, showing the charac- 
teristics of her mind and heart, was always simple and of 
quiet colors. She was unassuming, sober-minded, serious, 
conscientious even to a fault, studious, industrious, and 
ready for every duty or sacrifice life might have in store 
for her. But, withal, she had a mind and will of her own, 
and some shades and tinges of radicalism, the product of 
heredity and environment, for she was born and brought 
up in the midst of anti-slavery, anti-saloon, anti-Masonic, 
anti-Mormon, and other anti-agitations of the middle 
decades of the last century, and her father took radical 
grounds on all these questions. We were married at 
Platteville June 25, 1868, Rev. J. E. Pond, the pastor of 



Maria Greene Douglass 19 

the church, performing the ceremony. We took a short 
wedding trip and then began at Osage, Mitchell County, 
a life of fifty years in Iowa. Four years ago we observed our 
golden wedding. 

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PLATTEVILLE 
Maria Greene Douglass 

As I sit at my desk there is before me the portrait of a 
man in the prime of life, of large frame, broad shoulders, 
wide brow crowned with an abundance of dark hair, a well 
formed nose, firm mouth, and dark beard. The outstanding 
of the features are the dark, full, kindly, piercing eyes. 
When fixed upon one they seem to penetrate to one's inmost 
being, "discerning even the thoughts and intents of the 
heart." Such was the outward appearance of one of the 
great educators of the Middle West in the last half of the 
nineteenth century, Josiah Little Pickard. 

Born in 1824 in New England, where his early life was 
spent and where he was educated, his life service was given 
to the Middle West, and his last years were spent in Califor- 
nia, whence he departed this life in 1914, a noble Christian 
man and educator, the impress of whose life was left upon 
many thousands of young men and young women. No one 
could fail to be a better man or woman from having come 
in contact with this great-hearted friend. 

I first met Mr. Pickard when I was at the age of twelve. 
My parents, with their minor children, moved from western 
New York to the young state of Wisconsin in the autumn 
of 1855, and settled at Platteville, Grant County, in the 
southwest corner of the state. Entering as strangers the 
Congregational Church, where we were accustomed to wor- 
ship, we were greeted by Mr. Pickai'd as a deacon of the 
church. The opening of the Sunday school found Mr. 
Pickard as its superintendent, alert and interested in every 



20 Personal Recollections of Platteville 

individual member; so he became a formative influence in 
my life from our very first meeting. 

Platteville was a typical western village of those early 
times, rude and uncouth in many ways but not lacking in 
signs of refinement and good taste. Situated in the midst 
of the lead mining region, its people were of a number of 
nationalities and tongues. The men and women who were 
counted as leaders and who gave tone to the town were 
largely from New England and New York, and from the 
South. These were for the most part enterprising, public- 
spirited, cultured people, bringing with them the traditions 
of the several sections from which they came. The majority 
of them, being professed Christians, were gathered into the 
Congregational and Methodist Episcopal churches. The 
miners' families were predominantly English and Welsh, 
and a Primitive Methodist Church accommodated them. 
A considerable German population supported a Presbyte- 
rian and a Lutheran Church. The growing Irish population 
erected a Catholic house of worship, and later an Episcopal 
Church was built. There was one institution open to all, 
and patronized freely by many of the citizens — namely, the 
saloon. In those early days, because foodstuffs and drink 
were supposed to belong to the same category and were 
dispensed by the same business houses, the term "grocery" 
was appended to the store which furnished them. Later, 
when staple foodstuffs and dry goods were combined in 
general stores, the term "grocery" still clung to places where 
drinks were the principal merchandise. Thus, in my early 
days in Platteville "groceries" were the equivalent of 
saloons of later years. 

Main Street in Platteville extended east and west 
through the entire length of the village. Branching off 
about midway of its length to the north was Grocery Street,' 

' Grocery Street (Second Street) was a unique institution of modern city government. 
The first business houses were erected on this street, but gradually business drifted onto 
Main Street. The first village board, 1845, refused to grant licenses for sale of liquors 



Maria Greene Douglass 21 

where the drinking places were segregated within a block or 
so. Beyond this section were residences, but that part of the 
street was popularly known as Slab Street. In addition to 
the groceries (or saloons) there were several other business 
houses on Grocery Street, a shoe shop, harness shop, etc. 
From the doors of the groceries drunken men were often 
seen reeling, and men and boys were often seen entering 
for drinks. Women and girls were not often seen on Grocery 
Street. 

On all sides of the town the mining industry was carried 
on in a primitive way, and mineral holes abounded every- 
where. They were well-like excavations sunk for lead ore. 
The ore mixed with earth was lifted in buckets operated 
by a hand windlass; when the vein of ore was exhausted, 
the digging stopped and the hole was left open; not seldom 
a drunken man or an animal would fall into one of these 
holes and suffer injury. The holes varied in depth from a 
few feet to twenty or thirty feet, so one had to watch his 
steps carefully if he were walking elsewhere than on the 
regular highway. Many were the warnings given us chil- 
dren when we went into the country to gather flowers or 
nuts, not to fall into mineral holes. As I remember it, the 
lead ore that was mined was taken to a smelter and melted 
and run into a mould of certain dimensions, and came out 
"pig lead," in which form it was taken to market. I have 
no data as to the annual yield of lead, but it must have 
been considerable. 

At the time of my first acquaintance with Platteville 
there were three public schools. The north and south 
schools for younger pupils were accommodated in small 
brick structures. The more advanced boys and girls were 
gathered into the one-time dining room of a rather commo- 

on Main Street, but no ordinance to that effect was ever enacted. It remained the unwrit- 
ten law, however, and the saloons were ever after con6ned to Second Street, which thus 
became and remained Grocery Street. 



22 Personal Recollections of Platteville 

dious brick hotel building called the Campbell House, 
which had ceased to be used as a hotel and was rented for 
school purposes. It was this school that I entered in the 
autumn of 1855, Mr. H. Robbins, a farmer-citizen of Platte- 
ville, being the teacher. The one thing that I remember 
with distinctness about that school was the thorough 
daily drill given us in mental arithmetic. At the close of 
the winter term the school was discontinued. The following 
summer I attended the south school taught by Miss McMur- 
ray, who afterward became Mrs. W. Grindell. The next 
year, because there was no other place for me to attend 
school, I entered Platteville Academy as one of its youngest 
pupils. Looking back over a period of sixty-five years, I 
count my enrollment as a pupil of Platteville Academy one 
of the most fortunate occurrences of my life. I do not 
hesitate to assert that in my belief it was providential, 
as have been all the orderings of my life. Mr. Pickard as 
principal and Miss Fanny S. Josslyn as preceptress were 
rare teachers, and rare persons for a young girl to be asso- 
ciated with. To these, together with our pastor and his 
wife. Rev. and Mrs. John Lewis, I am more indebted than 
to all others outside the family circle, for influences exerted 
and ideals presented which determined the course of my 
life. During the previous winter, after a few weeks of resi- 
dence in Platteville, my father suddenly sickened and died 
of pneumonia, so that because of our great loss and bereave- 
ment I was in a state of mind to be influenced in the best 
ways. 

At the time I entered Platteville Academy there were a 
number of boys and young men from Southern slave- 
holding families enrolled as students. They were among 
the popular and influential students. In course of time a 
refined colored girl came to town with a prominent white 
family and was entered as a student of the Academy. There 
were threats on the part of the Southern students of leaving 



Maria Greene Douglass 23 

school if that colored girl were allowed to remain. The 
matter was taken up by the trustees of the Academy, who 
decided the girl must he dismissed. Mr. Pickard, being 
ill at the time, gave notice to the trustees that when the 
colored girl was sent away they would receive his resigna- 
tion as principal of the Academy. While the matter was 
pending, the girl in question announced that she had applied 
for admission to Kockford Seminary and had been accepted, 
so the matter quieted down; but young girl as I was, and 
almost heartbroken at the prospect of losing my beloved 
teacher, the thought of his great sacrifice in giving up all 
rather than compromise principle made an impression on 
my mind which remains to this day, and many a time has 
helped me to be firm and uncompromising in standing for 
the right as I have seen it. I count that as one of the most 
valuable object lessons of my life, and in my girlhood imag- 
ination it set Mr. Pickard upon a pedestal high above most 
other men that I had known. 

The Academy building of my day was a rather imposing 
three-story stone building west of the business section of 
the town.' The first floor consisted of an entrance hall 
with stairway, on either side of which were recitation 
rooms. In the rear was a large assembly and study hall, 
where also recitations were conducted in front of the teach- 
ers' platform. It was a well lighted, pleasant room. Its 
decorations were engraved portraits of great statesmen 
— Washington, Webster, Franklin — also several framed 
mottoes to which reference was often made from the plat- 
form. 

In the second story were music room and physical labora- 
tory, and the third story was used as a dormitory for men 
students. The building was surmounted by a belfry from 

' The Academy building described is still standing, being now used as the State 
Mining School; and the houses described as across the street, one occupied by Mr. Pickard 
and one by Mr. Lewis, are still standing. 



24 Personal Recollections of Platteville 

which a sweet-toned bell tolled off the hours for coming 
and going, change of classes, etc. In the principal's record 
book are found the names of the pupils who had come under 
his instruction in Platteville Academy, to the number 
of 1137. 

Across the street from the Academy were two brick 
residences of similar construction, in size and quality above 
the average of the dwellings of the town. These were the 
homes of Mr. Pickard, with his devoted wife and three 
wide-awake, happy children and foster daughter; and of 
Rev. and Mrs. John Lewis, with mother and sister and 
foster daughter. The Academy and these homes formed 
the center of efforts and influences which radiated in all 
directions for the building up of true, noble manhood and 
womanhood of that community, and reached well into the 
country beyond. 

Much less time and thought were given to recreation 
and social life in the Academy of those days than is devoted 
to athletics and social occasions in most educational institu- 
tions of today. I think there was no organized form of sports 
among the boys, though they were often seen on the Acad- 
emy grounds playing ball. For the girls there were classes 
for drilling in calisthenic exercises, which were the fore- 
runner of girls' gymnasium work. 

There was held annually a May Day picnic, in which 
all, both teachers and students, joined. The crowning 
event of the day was choosing by ballot the ^lay queen and 
king and attendants — then came the weaving of floral 
crowns, the making and decorating the throne seats, the 
ceremony of escorting the queen and attendants to the 
throne, followed by the picnic lunch, at which we were 
seated in a circle; then songs, speeches, stunts, and games 
concluded the gayeties. These were red-letter days spent 
in the open under great pine trees by a clear running brook, 



Maria Greene Douglass 25 

with the freedom and good fellowship known only to young 
people in natural and wholesome surroundings. 

The boys would sometimes plan jokes of their own, as 
when one morning, all being assembled, Mr. Pickard 
opened his drawer to take from it his Bible and hymn book 
for the opening devotional services, and found a rooster 
hidden there. A titter was heard from a nearby group of 
boys, but Mr. Pickard, lifting the rooster from the drawer, 
walked down the aisle and passed through the entrance door. 
Having disposed of it, he returned and went on with the 
usual exercises, making no reference to the unusual occur- 
rence. Some of us wondered on whom the joke was. 

In the early years of Platteville Academy a record was 
kept of deportment, attendance, punctuality, and church 
attendance, and each student was expected to report on 
these several points. These reports helped to determine 
the students' standing in the school. 

A literary society met weekly, to which the upper 
classes were admitted. It was regularly organized, and 
varied programs were given, consisting of declamations, 
essays, recitations, debates, music, etc., with regularly 
appointed critics to pronounce upon the several parts. 
Much earnest work was done and not a little fun was ex- 
tracted from the programs. The attendance and help of 
the teachers added dignity and interest to these gatherings. 

The tone of the social life in Platteville on the part of a 
few families was more or less aristocratic, but for the most 
part was friendly and democratic, as became well meaning, 
industrious, intelligent citizens of an American town in the 
making. Anj-one of worthy character and life had an equal 
place for helpfulness and influence with that of any of his 
neighbors. This was finely exemplified during the Civil 
War when the people generally were united in sustaining 
the government measures and in ministering to the comfort 
of the soldier boys. There were a few exceptions where 



26 Personal Recollections of Platteville 

families sympathized with the Confederate South, but 
these sympathizers were usually discreet in expressing their 
views. Well do I recall the mass meetings of the citizens, 
the speeches, the martial music of the band, the singing of 
popular war songs, and the recruiting of our boys for enlist- 
ment in the war. The women and girls of every community 
were gathered into soldier aid societies for the knitting of 
socks and mittens with one finger, the making of garments, 
scraping of lint, rolling of bandages, etc. The making of 
"housewives" containing thread, needles, buttons, scissors, 
etc. for the soldiers was generally claimed by the young 
women, and into many an one was slipped a pocket testa- 
ment, a note, a photograph, or other token of remembrance 
and regard. 

In the year 1859 Mr. Pickard was elected state superin- 
tendent of public instruction in Wisconsin, so he resigned as 
principal of Platteville Academy. He was succeeded for a 
year or two by Mr. A, K. Johnston, a young man from a 
New England college. He in turn was followed by Mr. 
George M. Guernsey, who continued at the head of the 
Academy until it became a state normal school. 

Having finished the Academy course in the winter of 
1861, I taught the following summer at Limestone, but was 
graduated with my class in June of that year. The following 
year I taught country schools near Platteville. In the 
spring of '63 I entered the state normal college at Albany, 
New York, from which I was graduated the following year. 
Then taking a short course in the Oswego, New York, 
training school, I accepted a position in Philadelphia in a 
young ladies' seminary, where I taught for two years. In 
this way I was removed from close connection with Platte- 
ville for several years. In the summer of '67 I returned to 
make preparations for my approaching marriage to Rev. 
Truman O. Douglass, which took place in 1868, upon the 
completion of his theological seminary course in Chicago, 



Maria Greene Douglass 27 

when we removed to Iowa. Occasional visits to Platteville 
through the following years kept me in touch with relatives 
and friends there, until by removal and death most of them 
were gone and I began to feel a stranger in a strange land. 

One memorable visit there was on the occasion of the 
Pickard reunion in the summer of 1887. Former students 
of Platteville Academy conceived the idea of bringing 
together as many as could come of the old students, in 
honor of our beloved Mr. Pickard. Committees were ap- 
pointed to plan for it. Just as far as the addresses could be 
secured, every living former student was notified of the 
plan and urged to be present. Local committees made 
careful and rather elaborate preparations for entertainment, 
social functions, and banquet. A program committee had 
a varied and interesting intellectual feast prepared, and 
opportunities to renew friendships in delightful fellowship 
were enjoyed to the full. Expressions of esteem and loving 
regard for him whom we all delighted to honor were freely 
given and gratefully acknowledged. That so large a num- 
ber could be brought together after the lapse of years was 
a marked testimony to the strong hold Mr. Pickard had on 
all our hearts. 

During all the busy years of nearly half a century, my 
husband and I were happy in keeping in touch with Mr. 
Pickard by occasional exchange of letters, meetings at 
religious conferences, and rare visits — the last, in 1910, in 
sunny California. During several months' stay there we 
received calls from Mr. Pickard and, best of all, spent a 
happy day with him in his daughter's pleasant home in 
Cupertino. It was a rare occasion as we talked over old 
times and acquaintances and experiences in Platteville and 
the Academy, and were shown many cherished mementoes 
and memorials of his life work, with the prized pictures of 
students and friends of the early days, especially those asso- 
ciated with Mrs. Pickard, who had been a helper and loved 
companion for over fifty years of wedded life. 




28 Personal Recollections of Plattevilh 

016 091 553 5 

At Christmas time of 1913 we received a beautiful 
characteristic letter from Mr. Pickard; then in a short time 
came the news of his passing beyond the realm of our 
earthly vision, and we doubt not he had entered upon that 
larger, fuller, blessed life of the spirit for which he had been 
preparing in the long years of faithful service here. 



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